If you've now got a brick, take this opportunity to stop using them... think of it as Marie Kondo for your digital gear.

This is why these things are so cheap. You're not buying them, just paying 4-5 years up front rental on a service with a disposable dongle included.

...and then you need to buy another.

Yay, more e-waste landfill in the cause of Google's profits.

2018 is some 3.5 years back, and even 4-5 years is pathetically short for a piece of hardware. I've got laptops, access points and other computery hardware in use that's at ten years and beyond, with nary a problem.

But the replacements will surely be better. At spying.

that you MUST upgrade.

Now good consumer... get on and order a replacement and don't complain if it also stops working in 2-3 years.

Google must be obeyed. You do understand that don't you? Failure to comply will result in a credit rating that goes down the pan in a flash.

They are more powerful than any government.

The above is only slightly tongue in cheek.

Meanwhile my 1970s thermostats and light switches are still working perfectly as the e-waste piles up.

My Z-Wave switches hidden behind the wall switches continue to work, and the switch on the front toggles the lights even if the computer it all runs on is shut down. Updates only happen when I choose. See home-assistant.io for details

Mine are only from the 1990s, but I updated my office light switch from night sleeping to early morning awake with lights on. Then, when the sun rose, I again updated to normal daylight and the lights went off. Judging by the house temperature and the fact that my wife is comfortable, the thermostat is doing all that is needed to maintain comfort. So far both devices, and a number of other similar examples, have provided almost 30 years of round the clock service, so have our fingers. As a result, everyone is happy, except perhaps the dog, who now wants their evening walk at 13:30 hours.

Fsckya OS.

Where are all those eco protesters?

Nowhere to be seen.

Those 'Eco protesters' would never have bought this tat in the first place.

They are there laughing their heads off at the collective stupidity of those who did fall into the trap set by Google/Amazon/Facebook.

If you did buy one of these bits of spyware are you going to replace it with another one?

If the answer is yes then why? Care to explain for us... the uneducated as to why we have to kneel down to Google etc and pay money for them to be allowed to spy on us...?

I know the people that think these things are cool, and helpful. They can barely use a computer, and Do NOT Touch type, that's why it's to say hey google or whatever... Not IT people in any sense of the word, it's sad that it takes way more education than most people will ever have to use this IoT TAT in a remotely safe fashion...

Well, someone's certainly making an outrageous fortune selling all this flaky Internet of Brick stuff.

Isn't it time that legislation was passed to recover damages from the up-daters?

If you take your car to the garage for an MOT and it falls off the ramp and is damaged, the garage is liable. Same with services delivered to patients at a hospital. Surely Google/IT provider should be liable for damages too. Either fix the code, or if totally bricked replace it. This would force companies to test upgrades rather than have the end users do so.

I understand that software is a little different to hardware, but is it actually? Is it only different in the consumers' minds because they want us to think that way? Now extrapolate and go forward in time. I foresee all products having embedded software and network connectivity. What if all my beer cans get bricked due to a wonky ASDA.OS up-date and I can't remotely open them? I'd want pre-cooled replacements.

Perhaps the consumer needs a paradigm shift.

This would force companies to test upgrades rather than have the end users do so

More likely companies would decide to simply not bother with upgrades for older hardware. This is already the case with most mobile phone manufacturers.

Devil's advocate here :)

Services are not normally treated the same as goods. A car falling off a ramp is obviously damage that has to be rectified but a hospital treatment that doesn't turn out as hoped for is unlikely to be actionable unless you can prove negligence. And going back to the unfortunate car - if the car doesn't fall off the ramp but is not fixed to the owner's satisfaction that too might not be actionable. If any parts were paid for you can ask for that aspect of the cost to be refunded but the time spent by the mechanic need not be refunded unless you can prove incompetence or gross overcharging.

Consumer law generally only requires that for services:

* The charges be reasonable and easy to understand.

* The work be done to a reasonable standard with a reasonable degree of skill.

Consumer law does not require that the result of a service be exactly what the customer wanted. The law even allows service providers to fail completely. 'Reasonable' is usually defined as 'what you'd expect from similar service providers'.

Software updates are a slightly grey area.

I would suggest a slightly different opinion. An optional upgrade that *you* choose to apply which fails could *possibly* be deemed your problem (I don't agree with that point of view but hear me out ...)

If however the supplier insists that your device, for continued operation, is automatically updated by that supplier, then I would suggest the full and continued operation of that device is the responsibility of the supplier. In the UK at least, I believe consumer law still decrees that goods should continue to be fit for purpose for a reasonable lifetime - electrical equipment used to be ten years from purchase - otherwise there was a reasonable case to claim recompense from the manufacturer/supplier. I'm not sure whether Brexit has changed that rule but I don't believe so.

In this case, a device being bricked by the supplier when only three years old (deliberately or otherwise) certainly contravenes the 'reasonable lifetime' clause ...

I'll have to look into the depths of the consumer regulations but I'm sure suggested reasonable lifetimes are still there.

6 years in England, 5 years in Scotland. EU law says 2 years, so Brexit doesn't change that.

... after such a short time are subject to the consumer rights act 2015 and the owner can insist the retailer repairs or replaces it. Especially if they've bricked it with an update.

It would depend on the jurisdiction. Some have consumer protection law, some don't.

Good point, should've mentioned it only applies in Blighty though the EU has similar laws.

Depends on the timescale. In the UK (and EU) It's only an automatic repair/refund/replace during the first six months. And even then after a couple of weeks or so the law says that repair is all they really need to do.

After six months it's up to the owner to prove that the item was defective when originally purchased. In most cases retailers will waive this requirement because it's less hassle and fosters good will with the customer.

Under EU/UK law the consumer also has several years during which to make a claim. However this is not some kind of extended guarantee. It's more like a 'statute of limitation'. You can indeed lodge a claim against a retailer if your five year-old washing machine has broken down. But whether you'll actually get any redress is another matter. Five years is a bit poor for a washing machine but the age will be taken into consideration in the judgement so you might only get half the price of a new machine. And that's assuming you can find an engineer to write a report saying why the unit was defective when you bought it.

It's a pretty good system but it's not a panacea for all domestic purchase issues.

But I'm not actually sure if any of this applies to a software update gone wrong. For one thing consumer law says your contract is with the retailer but can you really claim against Currys if a Microsoft update bricks your laptop? and given that UK/EU consumer law talks about defects at time of purchase does a software update count at all?

If an update bricks your device, the limitation period starts from the time the update was delivered.

Just what I was about to say.

The big problem will be getting it to stick. Google will just ignore informal claims that people make. Taking it to the small claims court might work but Google know that most people will just give up as it is a lot of bother for not a lot of money.

The best thing that people can do is to talk loudly on facebook/... about the problems.

Putting the speaker in "smart speaker"...

I bought one of the early Google Chromecasts. It was cheap, and I just wanted to use it to show American Football games from the NFL app. It was also an interesting experiment into Google and internet-o'-stuff.

For example, Amazon are pretty platform agnostic. But blocked Chromecast for Amazon Prime Video. however there was an extension you could get on desktop versions of Chrome that would allow you to share the screen with a Chromecast anyway, but that meant having the PC on to watch telly.

Then one day it wouldn't work. Turned out that Google had nuked the Chromecast app on my iPad, and I now had to download the Google Home app, so I could also use all their other IoT kit. They didn't bother telling me this, the Chromecast App still apparently worked - it's just you couldn't get anything to launch - but there were no error messages, nor had they bothered to send me an email to say they were killing their app.

It was only researching it on the internet that I discovered they were now using a new app, so once that was downloaded and everything set up again from scratch it worked. Then a year later it just stopped working, I think because it's old and unsupported, but it's hard to find out because again, no error messages. And no reason for it stop working either - given that they could have just kept the old infrastructure going. It's not like Google lack the odd spare server - or are short of software engineers to keep patching legacy kit.

Anyway the lesson I've learned is that Google customer service is shit, their hardware gets pisspoor support, their attitude sucks and they don't give a fuck. Reinforced by reading about what they've done to Nest on here.

I learned by what they did to Revolv.

My local home improvement stores have HUGE Nest sales displays, with people to harass you about it. I do so enjoy telling the Revolv story.